Minstrel (b.
1856, Deliktaş subdistrict / Kangal / Sivas - d. 1899). His original name was
Mustafa. Although he firstly used the names İcâdî and then Cehdî in his poems,
he became well known for the songs he improvised with the name Ruhsâtî. He learned
how to read and write in his village. He worked in farming for a time. He
became an orphan when his parents died while he was a child. Âşık Feryâdî
taught him how to read and write, Kusurî taught him how to play the Saz (a
traditional stringed instrument). He made his living by visiting villages and
playing and singing songs. After traveling around many Anatolian villages, he
returned to his village. Although he married four times, his wives all died at
a young age. He became extremely upset upon the death of his son Aşık Minhâcî.
Attached to a
Bektashi Şeyh named Şakir, Ruhsatî produced both didactic moral poems related
to Islamic mysticism and romantic poems. He became justifiably famous in
Anatolia for his lyrical improvisations and satires. Beside these works written
in traditional syllabic meter, he also wrote prosodic poems. His poems were
collected and published in the book Deliktaşlı
Ruhsati, Hayatı ve Eserleri (Ruhsati from Deliktaş, His Life and Works) by
Kadri Özyalçın in 1936 and published again as a book with the title Ruhsati, Hayatı ve Şiirleri (Ruhsati,
His Life and Poems) by Eflatun Cem Güney and Çetin Eflatun Güney in 1958.
